France returns to host the Volvo Ocean Race from Lorient, in Brittany on the northwest coast of France, in the summer of 2012.

Lorient will be the penultimate stopover in the race, which starts from Alicante, Spain in the autumn of 2011. Like La Rochelle before it (1997-98 and 2001-02), Lorient will also host a stopover in 2014-15 edition of the race.

The announcement of Lorient follows that of start port Alicante, and Cape Town and Lisbon as host ports. Lisbon in Portugal will play host to the start of the leg to Lorient, which is around 700nm.

"We are extremely pleased to have a strong French presence in the race," said Volvo Ocean Race CEO, Knut Frostad. "It has long been our goal to reignite the passion of this classic event among the French people and we are delighted to have reached an agreement with the city of Lorient to host the event for two consecutives races," he said.

France has fielded 21 entries in the race, taking part in every race from 1973-74 up until the sixth race in 1993-94 in which La Poste finished third. L'Esprit d'Equipe, skippered by Lionel Péan, was the overall winner in 1985-86 and 289 French sailors have taken part in the previous 10 races.

"Over the last 10 years, Lorient has transformed its submarine base into European-wide sailing cluster hosting a business centre to yachting activities. It is where the maxi trimarans Banque Populaire V and Groupama 3 were built. It also has an offshore sailing centre of about 50 teams, including France's most famous skippers," according to Norbert Métairie, Mayor of Lorient and President of Cap l'Orient Council. "Today we are overwhelmingly pleased to have demonstrated that Lorient is a perfect site to host international events such as the Volvo Ocean Race, which will undoubtedly yield significant benefits," he added.

During the stopover in Lorient, the Cité de la Voile Eric Tabarly, a complex dedicated to modern sailing races and bearing the name of the French skipper who sailed in The Whitbread four times (1973-74 Pen Duick VI, 1981-82 Euromarché, 1985-86 Côte d'Or and 1993-94 on La Poste), will be situated right in the centre of the race village.

Groupama, skippered by Franck Cammas (FRA), who is currently taking on the Jules Verne Trophy - a prize for the fastest circumnavigation of the world by any type of yacht with no restrictions on the size of the crew - has Lorient as its home base and will be France's entry in the next two races.

Tom Burton (AUS) and Alison Young (GBR) hit the right note in the Laser and Laser Radial at ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne as they took out the top honours and qualification spots to the 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup Final.

It was double Australian gold in the Paralympic classes. Matt Bugg (AUS) came out on top in the 2.4mR whilst London 2012 Paralympic SKUD18 gold medallists Dan Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch (AUS) were triumphant in the two person keelboat.

Lithuania's Juozas Bernotas came out on top in the Men's RS:X whilst Russia's Stefania Elfutina was triumphant in the Women's RS:X. Both sailors claim the first Abu Dhabi ISAF Sailing World Cup Final spots whilst Jock Calvert (AUS) and Joanna Sterling (AUS) picked up the Oceanic spots for the Emirati finale.

There was some fast paced action in the 49er and 49erFX Medal Races at ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne as Nathan Outteridge & Iain Jensen (AUS) and Maia & Ragna Agerup (NOR) claimed the honours and Abu Dhabi final spots.

A tight group of five young Papua New Guinean (PNG) Laser sailors are stepping up their 2015 Pacific Games competition program using this week's ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne. PNG is one of 33 countries represented at the important Oceanic event, the largest Olympic sailing regatta in the southern hemisphere.

Melbourne, Australia will host the final Rio 2016 Paralympic Games qualification regatta in 2015. With just under one year until the event, the 2015 IFDS Worlds was launched at ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne.

ISAF Sailing World Cup Melbourne kick starts the journey to the 2015 ISAF Sailing World Cup Final in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates with qualification spots and top ranking points available in the Australian city.

Four boats in the Volvo Ocean Race celebrated rounding the venerated landmark of Cape Horn on Monday, a pleasure cruelly denied Dongfeng Race Team (Charles Caudrelier/FRA) after the Chinese boat's mast was broken early in a dramatic day on Leg 5.

The wind played dirty tricks all day in Palma on the sailors and race committees who had to juggle with big shifts and different pressure. From 4 to 20 knots, and reaching 40 in some gusts, the wind turned around the bay playing with everybody's nerves.

Ghosting across the line in the inky blackness of a Mediterranean spring night, finally slicing through the finish line set on the very waters where some 40 odd years ago he cut his teeth as a young, aspiring sailor harbouring great dreams, at 01:47:00hrs local time Guillermo Altadill and his talented, ever reliable Chilean co-skipper Jose Muñoz secured second placed in this third edition of the Barcelona World Race, the round the world race for two crew which left the Catalan capital on December 31st 2014.

Algoa Bay brought lighter conditions on Sunday, and after a postponement waiting for the wind to settle, the race got underway in 7 knots of breeze from the south-east. Ted Conrads and Brian Haines from the USA were the pathfinders, and opened up the gate for the fleet as they sailed out to the right-hand side of the course.